


Loose Ends

by Stakebait



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-02
Updated: 2010-06-02
Packaged: 2017-10-09 21:23:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stakebait/pseuds/Stakebait
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Angel out of commission, Buffy and Wesley must take a hero's journey together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loose Ends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Butterfly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfly/gifts).



> Wesficathon entry. The request was Adventure genre, one kiss, no character death  
> Spoilers: Through Buffy season 7, including Chosen, and Angel season 4, plus the beginning of Fray

  
Buffy checked the address Giles had given her. This was the place. Large, which was a prerequisite for all buildings Angel. Buffy used to wonder if he ran laps during the day. The big warehouse, the big loft, the big hotel -- this place fit right in. But it was really... white. And modern. And full of people, none of which was Angel's style. The lobby gleamed. Buffy's leather pants would have had to be pinstriped not to be underdressed.

"Buffy Summers," she told the desk guy. "To see Angel."

"44, 68, 72" he said into his headset. Buffy resisted the impulse to yell "Hike!"

He looked up. "Someone will be right with you." Buffy wondered which number meant "ex-girlfriend on the premises." It reminded her of the Initiative.

She went back to watching the little video screen scroll. "Welcome to Wolfram and Hart, your full service legal professionals..."

"Miss Summers?" a hoarse voice came from behind her.

Buffy turned. Lean. Scruffy. Tall. Male. This was so not the secretary Buffy had pictured Angel having... "Wesley? Wow, you've changed."

"Quite." Wesley looked tired, but maybe that was just from seeing her. "Won't you come this way?"

This way turned out to be a big conference room with a polished wooden table. "Does everything here have to shine?"

"Everything," Wesley returned, deadpan. "It took us weeks to convince Angel to wear the gold lame."

Buffy giggled, then blinked. Wesley made jokes now? "Where is he, anyway?"

"That's what I wanted to speak to you about. I'm afraid he's in another dimension, looking for a cure for Cordelia's condition. We're not sure just when he'll be back. But of course you're welcome to stay in one of the visitor's suites until he returns."

Buffy felt a little sinking feeling in her gut at Cordy's name, but she ignored it. "I don't know if this can wait. Do you have any other demons on your payroll?"

"Five hundred and twelve, counting informants. Must it be a vampire?"

Buffy shook her head. "No, it was Anya, last time. But now that she's... I need to find Beljoxer's Eye."

Wesley leaned over to a gadget in the middle of the table that looked like it could project holograms and make coffee, and pressed a button. "Lorne? Would you come in please?"

******

"Big ball of eyeballs, right? Cryptic answers a specialty? Don't look at me, Sugar, unless you want someone to put together the soundtrack. These days I'm strictly executive." Lorne smoothed the lapels of his purple suit.

"But you know how to get there?"

"Not a clue, Summers Day, but what can't be found in the library of Wolfram and Hart doesn't exist. Wesley here's your man of the hour."

"I was afraid of that," Buffy and Wesley said in unison.

******

Buffy never thought she'd be nostalgic for the old days of tables piled high with books that didn't have what you wanted to know. But at least then it looked like you'd been doing something. Wesley's magic book of anything you could pronounce made it look like they'd been reading one book for seven hours, which was worse. And Wesley made a bad substitute for Giles. But that wasn't news.

Buffy pushed back her chair abruptly, and was even more annoyed when it didn't squeak. "I give up. Thanks for the help and all, Wes, but I'm gonna have to do this the old fashioned way."

Wesley raised an eyebrow.

"Beat somebody up until they tell me how."

"Wait." Wesley said.

Buffy turned on her way to the door. "Why? Did you find something?"

Wesley walked to the wall, pushed a painting aside, and took down a shotgun. "I'm coming with you."

*******

The Gwaquelkin demon pulled away from Buffy and started bolting down the alley. Wesley stepped out to block its way. "I wouldn't," he informed it icily.

The demon roared and charged him, and Wesley calmly shot it in the kneecaps.

"I warned you," he pointed out to the now-supine demon. Buffy came up, straddled the thing and started punching it in the face.

"You've changed, Wes," said Buffy.

"So you said," said Wesley, amused. "You might want to ask your questions before he passes out."

*******

"Are you sure that guy didn't send us on a wild Eye chase? Anya didn't mention miles of cave."

"Apparently her friend knew a shortcut. Given that it's buried under the rubble of Sunnydale, I'm afraid we're going to have to do this the hard way." Wesley's tiny flashlight flickered over the scrap of paper. "Now left."

Buffy scrabbled over a heap of rock into yet another cavern. Dark shapes whirled and screeched above her, and Buffy took an involuntary step back, bumping into Wesley. His form was unexpectedly reassuring, solid and warm.

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Just bats."

Buffy shuddered. "I know. So much more creepy than demons. Let's get this over with."

Two rockslides and a slippery slope later, Buffy stopped. "Do you hear something?"

The sound of Wesley's steps behind her stopped, and a second later the echo stopped as well. "Water."

Buffy took the flashlight and played it over the ground in front of them as they advanced cautiously. Sure enough, there was an underground river.

"I don't suppose you've a boat in your pocket," Wesley said wryly.

"I knew I forgot something. Looks like it's time for a swim. You don't have to come, Wesley." Not like Buffy got why he came in the first place.

"I don't like waiting." Buffy wondered if that was the answer to both questions.

Buffy gasped. The water was frigid. "Cold," she managed to warn Wesley. She took a step forward, and then the current caught her. "Strong," she started to say, but she lost her footing and her mouth filled with water.

"Buffy!" The dim shadow in front of him was suddenly gone. Wesley sucked in a deep breath and grabbed for her. He managed catch her wrist, before the current knocked him off his feet as well.

Buffy couldn't tell which way was up. It was all dark, and fast. Rocks seemed to buffet her from every direction. Her lungs burned with the effort of not breathing, and her shoulder was wrenched from dragging Wesley along behind her. "Let go!" She tried to yell, so she could swim to the surface, but she couldn't even hear herself over the roaring in her ears.

*****

Buffy woke up to feel something around her ribs squeezing painfully tight. She automatically kicked back at her attacker even as she felt water bubble from between her lips and she could breath again. Abruptly she was free, and stood taking deep ragged breaths until her mind belated registered a human moan of pain. An older man lay curled up on a rock, clutching his shin.

"Oh. Sorry." She said sheepishly.

"No, quite all right. Good to know your... Slayer impulses... are unimpaired."

"My what?" she asked. "Who are you?"

"Oh, bloody hell." The man set up abruptly. "I'm Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Do you remember your own name?"

"Of course. I'm Buffy Summers. Have we met?"

Waterlogged as he was, for some reason the man began to laugh.

"Why are we in a cave?"

"We're looking for Beljoxer's Eye."

"Wouldn't Beljoxer have it?" Buffy asked reasonably.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Cheerleader tryouts. They're posting the results tomorrow."

"Buffy, there's something you should know about the high school. Well, about all of Sunnydale, really..." Wesley began awkwardly.

"Where's that? I'm from Los Angeles."

******

Buffy's clothes were tight and itchy where they'd dried to her skin, and clammy where they hadn't. Her nails were ruined, and the hot older guy who saved her life was way more interested in hauling her along passages and studying the remains of a map than in noticing her. Could this day get any worse?

"Let me get this straight. We just went swimming in the River Lethe, which is why I don't remember anything. I'm 21. I'm supergirl. I kill vampires, except when I date them. I came back from the dead, I blew up my high school and then my town, my best friend the lesbian witch made a bunch more supergirls with an axe and now we're going to ask a disembodied eye if that was a bad idea?"

Wesley nodded. "In essence. You said Beljoxer's eye said your return had created an instability in the Slayer line that enabled the First Evil to attack, and you were worried that you'd just created another."

"You realize none of that made any sense."

The man -- Wesley -- smiled. "I used to say that to you all the time."

"So we've been friends for a while?"

"I wouldn't say that, precisely."

Was he her boyfriend? Buffy smoothed her hair as best as she could and stepped closer to Wesley, curling her fingers into a slender hand as chilled as her own.

"You called me Princess Margaret," he informed her. Buffy glanced sideways and studied the man's scars and five o'clock shadow. Maybe she'd been insane for six years and just woken up from electroshock therapy. Wet. In a cave. She shook her head to clear it and focused on the important things.

"You own a law firm?"

"Yes." The man sounded tired. "Buffy, I know this must be very strange for you, but try to focus."

"Hey, I'm focused like a telescope! We're just walking. I can do that and talk. I'm very talented."

Wesley's lips twitched. "Clearly."

"I was a _guidance counselor_? What happened to my life? I had it all planned out."

Wesley smiled. "Miss Summers, I've been asking that since the day I met you."

******

"This is it. End of the line." Wesley folded away his sodden map and helped Buffy down into the final cavern. Finally, one that was well lit, though it wasn't clear how. The walls glinted with flecks of gold. In the center of the room floated a giant blinking ball.

"Ew," said Buffy.

Wesley chuckled. "Shhh. Demonic oracles are notoriously touchy. Ask me about the hamburger sometime."

"Why have you come?"

Wesley stepped forward. "You told Anyanka that the Slayer's return from death allowed the First Evil to break through. We have come to ask if the calling of many Slayers presents such a danger."

"Why does the Slayer not ask in her own right?"

Buffy scowled at the thing. "What he said."

"The Powers that Be will not permit it. The balance will be maintained. You have a choice, Buffy Summers. You may take back the powers that you gave, and all will be as it was. Or the many Slayers will remain, and eradicate from the face of the earth all demons. But when that is done, no more Slayers shall be called when a Chosen One dies."

Buffy wondered how a pulsing eye thing talked anyway. Was there a Beljoxer's Mouth, someplace around the back where she couldn't see it?

"Forever?" Wesley asked.

"For the lifetimes of all the Slayers now called."

"But that's, like, a week. You said we die young, right?" She appealed to Wesley.

"For all of them added together. Hundreds of years." Wesley explained.

"Oh. But that's okay, right? I mean, there'll be nothing for them to Slay anyway. Is there a catch?"

"There's always a catch," Wesley confirmed.

"The Guardians are gone. As the Eldest Slayer, it falls to you. You must Choose now. " Beljoxer's Invisible Mouth boomed at her.

Wesley stepped between Buffy and the demon. "She can't even remember being a Slayer. Tell the bloody Powers to restore her memory if they're so keen on free will all of a sudden."

"Shouldn't you say please or something? I thought we were being tactful," whispered Buffy.

"We were," said Wesley. "Now we're being fed up."

"You command forces you cannot imagine, human."

Wesley nodded. "And tell them to get on with it."

"Your presumption amuses me. Very well. Your memory is restored."

A golden mist swirled up from nowhere to fill the room. Buffy breathed it in and Wesley, perforce, joined her.

When it cleared, Wesley looked much older, as if he could hardly stand. "Angel had a son," he said. "He killed him. It was my fault. He made us all forget. How can he stand to look at me, knowing?"

Buffy walked over and put her arms around him. Beljoxer's Pain in the Ass would just have to wait a minute.

"He does that a lot," she told Wesley comfortingly. "There was this day... Angel turned human. We were together. But he chose not to be, and he made me forget. Until now."

Wesley lifted a hand and brushed at the itch on her cheek. It was only when his fingers came away wet that she realized she was crying.

"Always a catch, huh? Stupid Powers." Buffy turned to face the Eye. "I gave them the choice. I'm not gonna take it away."

"So be it. One day another shall be called, long after the legend is forgotten, with none to help or guide her. She shall fight alone."

"No, she won't." Wesley had his fists balled at his sides, the gun long lost. He should have looked ridiculous. Instead he looked brave. Not a word Buffy would ever have thought to apply to Wesley before.

"So be it," Beljoxer's Eye said again, and then -- went out. The cavern was suddenly dark as all the others, and Wesley and Buffy stood blinking until their eyes adjusted once more.

Wesley got out his map and his flashlight again. "Come on, back the way we came. Except this time we jump the river." He hesitated. "If you take just a taste of the water, you could forget again. About Angel, or as much as you wanted. Make a fresh start."

"Are you going to?"

"No," said Wesley.

"Because of her? That girl?" said Buffy.

Wesley nodded.

"I was wrong. You're a good watcher," said Buffy, and stood on tip toe to brush a kiss across his lips.

She took off, walking, and after a moment Wesley caught up to her. "So, she said after an awkward pause, "what was the deal with the angry hamburger?"


End file.
